Re:Simplifying programming with AI-tutors
by nottorp on Wednesday September 04, 2024 @03:08AM
(#41442711)
> In our internal statistics and analytics on AI assisted programming it’s a very bad option for “junior” programmers. Basically it reduces productivity by quite a lot, it also produces a lot more pull request rejections due to really bad code. On the flip-side, things like co-pilot makes experts in their field of programming sooooo much more efficient.
There's been a study already. "AI" assisted beginners learned ... about nothing compared to the control beginners group. I think it was linked here on HN.
A LLM might help if it does not give you code but only answers short questions. Unless it's as good as those support chatbots.
Re:Simplifying programming with AI-tutors
by sayonidroy on Wednesday September 04, 2024 @03:15AM
(#41442747)
we totally agree that AI giving you coding solutions doesn't help. So Edmigo never provides solutions unless explicitly requested. Instead it gives hints to help learners think
Re:Simplifying programming with AI-tutors
by nottorp on Wednesday September 04, 2024 @03:20AM
(#41442783)
It would get banned from StackOverflow then :)
Re:Simplifying programming with AI-tutors
by devjab on Wednesday September 04, 2024 @08:00AM
(#41444648)
I must not have expressed myself clear enough, sorry English isn’t my first language. What I meant was actually the opppsite or what you say. AI is fancy auto-complete for programmers who know when to ignore it. It’s terrible at answering questions. It will tell you the most amazing things about how computers work. I know it’s not that different from Google programming, probably even more accurate, but the key difference we’ve found is that people tend to trust the AI more than what they find on Google.
Re:Simplifying programming with AI-tutors
by mnky9800n on Wednesday September 04, 2024 @03:01AM
(#41442669)
Yeah but this is really a cottage industry. If companies didn't expect applicants to grind leetcode this ai tutor wouldn't exist. The tutor isn't there to actually teach or innovate education in any way (as the authors claim in another post). It's there to reduce the friction between unemployment and employment.
I did them because I’m an external examiner for CS students and when I stated I wanted to brush up on all the stuff you learn during your first years, but I was blown away with how good they were. It has been a long time since so maybe they’ve changed.
I’d worry about AI tutors considering how often they get things blatantly wrong. In our internal statistics and analytics on AI assisted programming it’s a very bad option for “junior” programmers. Basically it reduces productivity by quite a lot, it also produces a lot more pull request rejections due to really bad code. On the flip-side, things like co-pilot makes experts in their field of programming sooooo much more efficient. What is really worrying though, is when LLMs get explanations completely wrong. Which means they are teaching the actually engineering wrong, and it can be years before it gets “fixed” if it ever does. I’ve worked in plenty of places where people would never be challenged on wrong knowledge. Often because their co-workers simply didn’t know any better either.